paris is only an hour's train ride from brussels. we did have a train delay because we didn't reserve a seat beforehand - sat in the bruxelles-midi station for 3 hours. i walked out into the street and there wasn't much to see... except a lot of smelly hobos. reminded me of nyc by battery park where there's not much but buildings under construction.
the station's interior was much more interesting - people of all shapes and colors, mostly french-speaking, and many carrying baguette sandwiches, walked by. much more colorful than train stations i've see in the states. i wasn't completely bored there.
our hotel is in the northern part of town... kinda shady. ching said it was like kensington (philly). i don't think it's as bad as that. we got right to the sights - first, notre dame, just around the perimeter since it was closed. then we walked along the seine, the latin quarter, ile de st. louis, and all along the rive gauche - the left bank. at nightfall, we took the metro to eiffel and got through the line to go up. eiffel is more impressive than i thought it would be. bigger. it was really awesome, actually. the huge, beautiful marble bases on which the four legs rest were also a surprise. and the city seen from the tower is just beautiful. there are no skyscrapers, just one tallish, blocky building that i could see in the entire city.
as soon as we descended eiffel, a mad thunderstorm rolled in, with veiny lightning. it was great - summer storm...
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must be nice to go up the Eiffel when it's not foggy out. we barely could see a thing when we were up there
ReplyDeleteYay, sounds like you're having a good time. Can't wait to see you in Madrid, T minus 4 days!!!!
ReplyDeleteto our surprise the 3rd floor closed at 10pm and we were ascending at 1030 or so...but it was still a great view in the clear blue sky.
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